Source of book: Audiobook my wife found at a library sale
My kids have been a fan of Alexander McCall Smith for quite
a few years now, after my wife introduced them to the Mma. Ramotswe series.
McCall Smith (that’s his full surname) is a prolific writer, but seems to hit a
note of thoughtfulness and nuance with most of his books, despite writing
several each year. He has at least three series going right now, in addition to
the stand-alone novels.
This book is one of the later, a novel unrelated to anything
else he wrote. It is set mostly in the years of World War Two, in rural England.
The title character, La (short for Lavender), is a young
British woman who ends up playing a rather unremarkable role in the war effort.
We meet her first in a retrospective by her stepsons, who visit her cottage in Suffolk, where most of
the events take place. She is still known, years after her death, for her
orchestra.
The book then shifts to La’s earlier years. She went to Cambridge (attending an all-girls college), made a
disastrous marriage which ends when his mistress in France comes to light, and is
gifted the cottage and an income by her former in-laws (who are embarrassed by
their son.) He dies soon after, leaving her with a significant fortune. When
the war starts, she searches for some volunteer work. However, as she is older
and widowed, intellectually stimulating jobs are unavailable, and she ends up
tending chickens in the neighborhood near her cottage. After meeting the
commander at the local air base, he and she decided to found a village
orchestra - to include service members looking for a diversion. Her orchestra
plays through the end of the war, disbanding afterward. They briefly re-form
during the Cuban Missile Crisis, causing someone to quip that they have saved
the world twice.
The other main character is Felix, an ostensibly Polish
airman, who joins the RAF after the fall of Poland. In reality, he has a more
complex history, being the child of German parents, although he was raised in Poland from age
eight onward. La and Felix have serious chemistry, but his reserve and her
loyalty to country prevent them from sharing their feelings. It is hinted in
the prologue that they connect years after the war, after he has had children
and a failed marriage of his own.
McCall Smith has a long history with music. He founded the
“Really Terrible Orchestra,” a group of enthusiastic amateurs who make music
for the joy of it (and the entertainment of the audience, I am given to
understand.) He plays contrabassoon, which may well say something about his
personality. He also established an opera house and training center in Botswana, a
country that he spent a number of years in, teaching law.
This book is all about McCall Smith’s belief in the healing
power of music. I must agree. One of the things about making classical music
professionally is that you connect with people from around the world. Even our
little hometown orchestra has had players from around the world join us - and
that is even before you get to the soloists. I have shared stands with
violinists from Russia, the Ukraine, Iran,
Romania, Japan, Cypress,
and Spain
over the years (if memory serves), and that’s just the ones I have had the
chance to sit with. Music is a universal language, and it is difficult to see
someone as “the enemy” after you have bonded over a Mozart opera, or a
Beethoven symphony.
McCall Smith is also correct that what we fight to preserve
(in a just war) isn’t merely our home or our tribe. We fight to preserve all
that is transcendent and good in the world. To reduce ourselves to the idea of
“kill the other people” is to lose the war, to become as vicious and
animalistic as the Nazis, or any other genocidal nationalist movement. One of
my Symphony colleagues had a bumper sticker: “Less Violence, More Violins.” I
couldn’t agree more. (Although even as a violinist, I’d be happy with a few
winds, brass, and percussion too.) Music - and the arts generally - represent
our aspiration to transcend, to find common ground and meaning with the rest of
humanity, and to put our energy and creativity toward beauty, rather than hate.
In general, I thought that La’s Orchestra Saves the World lacked the depth of character that
you find in some of his other books - but that might be in part because it is a
single book, and you don’t get to see characters unfold across a range of plots
and circumstances. The book does showcase McCall Smith’s usual ethical nuances
and dilemmas. Is it right to marry someone who you don’t exactly love? How
should one respond to betrayal? Should you turn someone in, even if you love
them, if you think they might be a spy? What if they turn out to be innocent,
but suffer anyway? How do you deal with bigoted neighbors? This is McCall
Smith’s best trait, is in his acknowledgement of nuance, and his gentle and
non-judgmental probing of the shades of grey.
***
Previous posts about Alexander McCall Smith books:
#1 Ladies Detective Agency series
The
Tears of the Giraffe (#2 in the series)
Morality
for Beautiful Girls (#3 in the series)
The
Kalahari Typing School For Men (#4 in the series)
The
Full Cupboard of Life (#5 in the series)
Blue
Shoes And Happiness (#7 in the series)
Sunday Philosophy Club series
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